Counter-protesters like the one pictured on the left in this 2008 photo awaited Westboro Baptist Church members today in Charleston, W. Virginia. (Photo: Burstein!/flickr)

Radical church group shows up in Charleston to 'protest' Upper Big Branch Coal Mine accident

Never missing a chance to hide behind their children and trot them around carrying signs with hate-filled messages to display for the cameras, members of the radical Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas showed up in Charleston, West Virginia on Thursday to tell the world that the reason the Upper Big Branch Coal Mine accident happened is because God is punishing America for tolerating homosexuality. [Video below]

A message on the Westboro Baptist Church website on Thursday reportedly read: “So God reached down and smacked one of those mines, killing 25." According to the Charleston Gazette, "Only six Westboro pickets showed up in front of the Capitol, including two men, one woman and three young children. They held up signs proclaiming: "America Is Doomed," "Thank God for Dead Miners," "God Hates Your Tears," "God Hates West Virginia" and "God Hates You."

Not to be outdone by the hate-filled Westboro parishioners, a large group of no-hate counter protesters held a rally of their own on the steps of the Statehouse in Charleston.

Organized by the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the state AFL-CIO, as well as local community, church, and veterans' groups, the number of counter-protestors dwarfed the small group of radicals from Westboro.

Again, from the Charleston Gazette:

"Local people peacefully overwhelmed the Westboro group. They carried their own signs, including: "I Love Everyone" and "God Bless Our Troops and Veterans."

Others signs had humorous messages: "This is a Sign" and "God Hates Signs."

After marching around the capitol area for a few minutes, the group from Westboro was soon overwhelmed by the much larger group of counter-protestors. So they did what any group of three adults and three children in town visiting a state capitol would do, they got in their rented mini-van and drove off.

Watch a video compilation of the morning's dueling protests produced by KVLive, replete with a John Denver-inspired flash mob dance at the end:

About the Author:

Timothy Hurst is the editor at Ecopolitology and Earth & Industry as well as the executive editor of the LiveOAK Media Network. He writes mostly about energy and environmental politics, clean tech, infrastructure and green business. When not reading, writing, or talking about environmental politics to anyone who will listen, Tim likes to ski, hike with his aging lab and get dirty in his Colorado veggie garden. Find Tim on Google+.

I don’t feel sorry for those kids, I read that the kid in the picture is actually in control of the whole organization. He pulls the strings, the adults just follow.

Lyn Weichert

I was so happy to see anti-protesters. I am from Topeka, KS the home of WBC. Guess what we don’t want them. They represent a very minimal part of Topeka and the world in their views. But guess what we have to deal with them 24/7 in our town. I am unable to drive down a main road without my children being subjected to the graphic images and words they display on their picket signs. What joy it brought to me to finally see them in the minority and the majority being peace loving people with the true message from God, Love, not HATE. West Virginian’s, please, you are welcome to come to Kansas and picket our hater’s right on out of this town. Too many followers of money and intimidation for most people in our town, so we never have enough people that WILL take a stand against the Phelps. BTW, to the man screaming with the orange tape on his pants, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you yelled BUT WE TOPEKANS DO NOT WANT THEM BACK, so maybe we could all agree to another protest by the water and slowly back them over the edge. I know not christian like of me but I truly believe what lives in the Phelps is NOT God, but Satan himself. And no the children are not in charge it is the older Phelps. My children go to school with some of the kids and those children really do not want to be apart of this but have no other options. Sad.

http://www.kvlive.net Allen

Appreciate that you posted this, it was part of what helped it go viral, but wish you would of gave credit to the people that reported it and filmed it. The Gazette was not even there, they pulled the info from the story on kvlive website. It’s a hard fight to be taken seriously and not to be called a blogging site.

http://ecopolitology.org Timothy B. Hurst

Hi Allen, Thanks for your comment. We’ve added a link and a credit to KVlive and we regret the error on our part. It is our standard practice to provide proper credit whenever we borrow, reproduce or embed images or text that have been made freely available on the web at sites like YouTube and Flickr. But with the KVlive.net production credit at the outset of the video and the watermark in the corner throughout, perhaps I thought it was redundant, or simply overlooked it. Regardless, a credit has been added.

Now, taking off my editor’s hat, I’d like to suggest that it’s quite possible to be both taken seriously and a blogging site. If people want to call kvlive a blogging site, so be it. What does that even matter? Let the quality of the content speak for itself.

Thanks again for your comment.

http://www.kvlive.net Allen

Thank you so much Mr. Hurst, and I truely hope you didn’t take my comment as an attack in anyway. I hope for the continued success of your site and vision. If in anyway we can benifit each other please don’t hesitate to contact us. I beleive thtat it’s though quility sites like these that the voice of our generation is heard. Thanks again!

This is truly disgusting. I don’t even live near your state, but I saw the videos and the way the “”Local people peacefully overwhelmed the Westboro group. ” That’s a quote from your own report on the incident. The KVLive.net footage shows otherwise. Specifically the 6:13 minute clip on YouTube. IT shows a gang of wolves waiting for the 3 adults and 3 small children of Westboro Baptist Church to show up and then the crowd attacked them instantly. The KTLive footage begins before they arrive. As soon as they walked by after just arriving, the crowd immediately began after them. Chasing them down and screaming in their faces. There’s no “overwhelming peace” at all! You people are way worse than Westboro Baptist.

IMHO, They did us a service by showing how hateful you are. NO matter what their message is, to attack them like that in mob fashion and then call it “peaceful” is a bald faced lie.

PJ

You are as idiotic as those Westboro freaks of nature. I live in West-By-God-Virginia, and we do not tolerate people coming to our State, uninvited, to celebrate the deaths of our coal miners. To bad they did not actually go down to the mine site to do their ‘protest’. Next time those freaks come to our State, why don’t you come and join them, if you feel so bad for them. I bet you voted for Obama, didn’t you?

Anonymous

Westboro Baptist Church spreads its hate through picketing in our streets, provoking attacks, with abusive language and flag desecration, attempting to create a confrontation. This is not a church, this is a hate group. This is not about protesting, freedom, or God. They are in it for the money and the press; this is a family law firm. They are not a “church.” It is a scam. They go after anything that can get them in the news. This is a family of lawyers using this “god hates you” thing to make money. It is time for this scam and the hate to end.

The church has received money from lawsuits and legal fees. For example, they sued the city of Topeka several times in the 1990s. WBC received $16,500, and is pursuing another $100,000, in legal fees for a case won in court. The WBC is considered a nonprofit organization by the federal government, and is therefore exempt from paying taxes!

Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church is shown admitting on camera that her oldest son was born out of wedlock. Hypocritical Phelps-Roper’s vocal condemnation on strangers having sexual congress outside of marriage while she herself was guilty of the same. They are NOT what they say they are!! THEY ARE NOT A CHURCH!!!

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